It is not, my reverend
Ambrosius, because we seek after many words—a thing which is
forbidden, and in the indulgence of which it is impossible to avoid
sin40744074 Cf. Prov. x. 19.—that we now begin the fifth book of
our reply to the treatise of Celsus, but with the endeavour, so far as
may be within our power, to leave none of his statements without
examination, and especially those in which it might appear to some that
he had skilfully assailed us and the Jews. If it were possible,
indeed, for me to enter along with my words into the conscience of
every one without exception who peruses this work, and to extract each
dart which wounds him who is not completely protected with the
“whole armour” of God, and apply a rational medicine to
cure the wound inflicted by Celsus, which prevents those who listen to
his words from remaining “sound in the faith,” I would do
so. But since it is the work of God alone, in conformity with His
own Spirit, and along with that of Christ, to take up His abode
invisibly in those persons whom He judges worthy of being visited; so,
on the other hand, is our object to try, by means of arguments
and treatises, to confirm men in their faith, and to earn the name of
“workmen needing not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth.”40754075 Cf. 2 Tim. ii. 15. And there is
one thing above all which it appears to us we ought to do, if we would
discharge faithfully the task enjoined upon us by you, and that is to
overturn to the best of our ability the confident assertions of
Celsus. Let us then quote such assertions of his as follow those
which we have already refuted (the reader must decide whether we have
done so successfully or not), and let us reply to them. And may
God grant that we approach not our subject with our understanding and
reason empty and devoid of divine inspiration, that the faith of those
whom we wish to aid may not depend upon human wisdom, but that,
receiving the “mind” of Christ from His Father, who alone
can bestow it, and being strengthened by participating in the word of
God, we may pull down “every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God,”40764076 Cf. 2 Cor. x. 5. and the
imagination of Celsus, who exalts himself against us, and against
Jesus, and also against Moses and the prophets, in order that He who
“gave the word to those who published it with great
power”40774077 Cf. Ps. lxviii. 11. may supply us also,
and bestow upon us “great power,” so that faith in the word
and power of God may be implanted in the minds of all who will peruse
our work.